It was 50 years ago today, August 13th, 1961, that East German soldiers began cordoning off the western part of the city. This was the beginning of the Berlin Wall. Germany marked the occasion with a ceremony earlier today. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Christian Wulff, and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit were all present to remember those who died attempting to cross the barrier from East Berlin to West Berlin.

Addressing the ceremony on Bernauer, a street famously divided by the Wall and now site of a memorial, Mayor Wowereit said the capital was remembering the "saddest day in its recent history".

"It is our common responsibility to keep alive the memories and pass them on to the next generation, to maintain freedom and democracy and to do everything so that such injustices may never happen again," he said.

Earlier, Mr Wulff told Die Welt newspaper that the modern Germany could take pride in "East Germans' irrepressible desire for freedom and West Germans' solidarity with them".